A month or so ago, I planted around a million plants. The frost, the house renovation, and our limited budget had meant empty beds for awhile… so we carved off some cash and I spent a few afternoons planting. It was really growing in and starting to look good.
Then the petunias started looking not so good. Holes. And sticky leaves. Like this.
I went out last night on the way to Treme. A quick flashlight revealed what we’d suspected.
SLUGS.
I ran back inside and set up Abita bait. Too good of a beer for these bastards, but hey, it was what we had on hand.
The cat lives up the street and is my frequent garden companion. He was out when I set out the beer traps and around this morning when I tallied results. I counted to roughly 110 slugs.
And still, there are more.
I set up more traps tonight, though I’m not sure how long to keep this up. I also put down coffee grounds (Paul will bring home more from our neighborhood coffee shop tomorrow morning).
Anyone else have experience with getting rid of slugs? What else can I do? How long do I put out bait? And is it cruel to sprinkle them with salt? I can’t bring myself to do it, even after just going out there and seeing several big fat ones on the Petunias. Gross.
Heather.engel@gmail. | 20-Apr-10 at 12:36 am | Permalink
Oh yuck. That is the grossest picture ever, all those slugs swimming in the beer. I have no slug experience, because I am a terrible gardener, so all I can offer is some my consolation!
Sarah | 20-Apr-10 at 12:46 am | Permalink
We had a serious slug problem at our old apartment. Jean had no qualms about springling them with salt. I thought it was kind of horrifying to see them die that way…yet also strangely satisfying that they would then be gone…till the next night. I could send Jean your way with our morton’s. 🙂
Christoph | 20-Apr-10 at 1:02 am | Permalink
If you count 110 there, who knows how many more are out there in your yard; probably hundreds more. It’s hard for me to imagine as a non-gardener — pretty amazing. Good luck. Too bad for wasted beer, but it’s serving an honorable purpose I suppose. I would salt the heck out of those things, personally. I’m sure that slugs serve a useful purpose in the world, but so do flowers. The slugs will adjust somehow.
Harriet | 20-Apr-10 at 4:19 am | Permalink
Ugh. We have slugs in one of our flower beds — they like my hostas. But they are tiny and I tend to just pick them off by hand. I don’t know why I am so grossed out by them. Night crawlers don’t even bother me. But slugs…yuck. I’ve been told to drop them in a bucked of salty or soapy water to kill them. But I always feel kind of bad about that. Despite being grossed out by them, it seems kind of unfair to give them beer and then bump them off. It’s like a really bad blind date.
Amy | 20-Apr-10 at 6:39 am | Permalink
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to drink beer again after seeing that picture…yuck! And Harriet’s analogy to a blind date was hilarious!
Melanie | 20-Apr-10 at 8:07 am | Permalink
We had slugs get into the dog food on the back porch in Memphis. My brother and I decided to salt some of the buggers. I swore off salting slugs after seeing the resulting mess. I expected them to dissolve away. They actually sort of melt and leave a puddle of lumpy goo.
kayak woman | 20-Apr-10 at 8:50 am | Permalink
I long for a green thumb but, alas, mine is as black as the ace of spades. So no good advice, but this brought back a funny memory for me. When my kids were just old enough that they could be left for short periods of time (oldest about 10), my husband and I ran a short errand on a beautiful Saturday morning. When we got home, the kids were in the back yard next to our overgrown raspberry patch. With a beer can!!! It turned out they had learned about the slug beer trap somewhere and were setting one up next to the raspberries. Fortunately, the next door neighbors (who were watching) thought it was funny and nobody called the CPS on us.
alejna | 20-Apr-10 at 6:44 pm | Permalink
Blech! (Yes, I know. Totally unhelpful. But I have no advice to offer.)
Lady M | 20-Apr-10 at 9:34 pm | Permalink
Eeeeew! It’s to bad that dead slugs aren’t good for something – that’s quite a crop.
magpie | 21-Apr-10 at 7:18 pm | Permalink
i think that salt would be kind of endless – i mean, if you caught 110 in beer without doing anything, it would take forever to kill 110 with salt. salt’s good for one or two at a time.
holly | 23-Apr-10 at 7:38 pm | Permalink
This is a good point. I mean, besides the ewwwww factor of gooey slugs melting on my plants.
holly | 23-Apr-10 at 7:38 pm | Permalink
My kids are terrified I’ll be making slugs for dinner… they are aware of escargot and have seen the snails mixed in with the slug genocide. 🙂
holly | 23-Apr-10 at 7:39 pm | Permalink
Love it! And overgrown raspberry patch??? SWOON.
holly | 23-Apr-10 at 7:39 pm | Permalink
Maybe I need to try dog food?
holly | 23-Apr-10 at 7:40 pm | Permalink
Just cheap beer. Stay away from that.
holly | 23-Apr-10 at 7:40 pm | Permalink
I cannot touch these, isn’t that ridiculous?
holly | 23-Apr-10 at 7:40 pm | Permalink
More than you can imagine! Got at least that many on the second attempt. Nice.
holly | 23-Apr-10 at 7:41 pm | Permalink
Jean can come over ANYTIME!
holly | 23-Apr-10 at 7:41 pm | Permalink
SO GROSS.
Sharron Brown | 03-Oct-10 at 8:27 pm | Permalink
About the time you found your batch of slugs, I waged war on ours. First I started salting… finding it disgusting… I still hated them enough to go through one gallon of sea salt, and that was simply a medium salting. I went on to reading that it was better for the slug to give a “quick kill” so I set out every evening with a flashlight and scissors. I say “sorry” then snip their head off… and a second slice by cutting them in half. For the first month I killed 100 – 300 slugs every night… HONEST! It is now the 3rd of October 2010
last night I got 10 slugs… tonight 11 slugs. It will be interesting to see what spring of 2011 brings… The best part is each day almost all of the slug parts are gone. I think the birds are eating the remains. I am much more in favor of helping the birds find dinner that feed the slugs my flowers and garden. Has anyone else tried this?
Sharron @ fogwash
P.S. We live on the Oregon Coast…. LOTS of slugs.